To understand how necessary abortion may be, Monika, che she was used to judging the women who chose him had to be on the other side of the fence. Today, in his print shop in Chelm, a Polish city on the border with Hungary, he offers his clients a paper petition to support full access to abortion in Poland (so far no one has signed up yet, though).
On 22 October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal declared the 1993 law unconstitutional that allowed abortion in cases of a high probability of a serious and irreversible anomaly or a life-threatening incurable disease. This resulted a de facto ban on abortion, since the vast majority of legal abortions performed in Poland were based on this motive.
Monika is 33 years old and she is mother of three children. She first became pregnant at 22while he was at university. But he had never considered abortion. “I thought it would be a sin, a crime and a murder », explains the woman to Guardian, which has collected its history. Two years later, she graduated.
In Chelm, there is no mention of abortion. Or, “if anyone ever mentioned it, it was to say something like, ‘I would never do that.’ Abortion is something that people do out there, in the big world, in progressive and left-wing countries. Not here”.
After the birth of her third daughter, three years ago, Monika she turned to the gynecologist to place the IUD. Her children were all born by caesarean section, a procedure that exposes the woman to greater risk each time it is performed. She was also tired of the pill’s side effects, and its cost was also a financial burden. The doctor tricked her, telling her he could only put the IUD on her in private. “It costs from 1,500 zł to 2,000 zł (about 350 to 470 euros). I didn’t have that money. ‘ Other doctors also reiterated the same thing.
In October 2020, when the wave of protests against the almost total ban on abortion broke out in Poland, Monika did not participate: she was busy and had to go to pick up her child from kindergarten. “I used to say to myself: ‘Let the others take care of it, those who no longer want to have children and who could end up in the hospital with some problems.” I was safe, I didn’t have to care».
In 2021, as the protests continued, he began to think more often about abortion. After researching, “I have come to the conclusion that nothing is done wrong. He’s not hurting himself or killing anyone».
In September, Monika became pregnant for the fourth time. She found a safe way online to get her abortion pills shipped at home: a week later, a package from the Netherlands arrived in his mailbox. “I was so happy when I saw it. I started to cry with joy ». Monika took the pills one Saturday after work. Two, between the gum and cheek, on both sides. Her older daughters were at a birthday party, the youngest was watching cartoons. The whole process lasted five hours, at 11pm Monika took a shower and fell asleep.
This experience changed her: She began sharing her story with friends – eliciting mixed reactions -, and recently exonerated her eldest daughter from religion classes at school, despite protests from teachers.
“I admit, I used to judge people,” she says. “Then, reading other people’s testimonials online, I thought, ‘Oh God, how stupid I was.’ We are so many, one in three. So why do we act as if it weren’t like that? ‘
Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:
-The Stories We Are: Letter to my abortion partner
-The right denied: investigation into abortion in Italy
Source: Vanity Fair
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